I'd be the first to assert that Sweetune was the best thing to happen to KARA, but I also can't deny that over the past few years, KARA has also perfected the cutesy track with substance. Younger groups have tried but KARA not only did it earlier, they do it well.

"Melancholy" is proof of that. I'm not the biggest fan of cutesy songs because most of the time they're far too saccharine, but I can stomach tracks like "Melancholy." Because actually, the only purely "cutesy"/squeaky part of the song is KARA's vocals. If you listen to the rest of the song it's feminine, yes, but the arrangement has both punch and depth, and the instrumentation is both interesting and familiar.

The brass line toes that very precarious line between cheesy and fun -- and stays confidently in the fun section, thankfully. The piano line is lively -- it's pretty much unnoticed throughout the song, but provides sort of a sense of speed that's melodic when it's not serving as a transition between the bridge and chorus. The melody is gorgeous, and it's one of my favorite melodies this year actually. It's smooth, and especially at the chorus it's feminine but works very, very well with the dynamics of the instrumental to develop depth.

"Melancholy" is proof of what I've always been saying about K-Pop -- it's not so much the "concepts" or aesthetics themselves that's the problem when it comes to most releases, it's the execution. And KARA got it right with this track.

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